Get the Horse Behind the Cart

Imagine your body as a race car. When tuned up and treated right it is capable of amazing feats. But, when the tires are bald, the brakes are bad and the chassis is twisted it will barely go in a straight line let alone go with any speed.

The modern fitness world is filled with ways to make your body seem capable of extraordinary feats while simultaneously removing any hope of actual performance. Any exercise machine will destroy performance because they work in a fixed plane and often from a seated position. This removes any real need for the body to develop a sense of movement awareness – essential for athletic success.

Along with machines most training plans push being strong first. This is despite all the top authorities in the world pointing out that on the training continuum the order should be – mobility/ stability – > endurance -> strength/ power. So why do these trainers advocate getting stronger above all else?

The answer is simple – strength is a very easy target. If your client lifted more today than yesterday you proved your worth as a trainer. Clients like feeling that kind of progress and that’s how you stay in a job. But when someone comes to you and they don’t stand up straight, or they walk with pain – won’t it make far more difference to their lives getting them out of that pain?

Let’s go back to that analogy about the car – how useful is it to put a bigger engine in a car that won’t even go in a straight line? That’s the equivalent to what goes on when you walk into the gym with a sore back and the trainers sit you down on a machine and start trying to make you stronger without fixing those underlying alignment issues.

When it comes to mobility and stability training there are two things that stand head and shoulders above the rest – FMS and Primal Move. The FMS system was designed by Gray Cook to be a thorough assessment of your movement ability. When the NFL, Marines and the AFL and Australian Federal Police start to use this system you know there’s huge benefit to it.

Primal Move is an interesting new addition to our work at Read Performance Training. As the national director here I have spent more time with this training method than anyone and what I’ve seen is nothing short of amazing. Primal Move attacks the deficiencies most commonly seen in the FMS and does so in a way that almost tricks the body into better movement.